Jump in Tayside and Fife claims through job retention scheme

FURLOUGH: Smaller firms more likely to have accessed government cash

Almost 130,000 people in Tayside and Fife have had their wages supported by the UK Government during the Covid-19 pandemic, new figures have shown.

HMRC’s figures – which run until the end of June – show the scale of people signing up for the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS), where the government has paid 80% of the wages of people placed on furlough, up to £2,500 per month.

Across Tayside and Fife, a total of 99,600 people have been on furlough at some stage – 29% of the entire workforce.

Broken down by local authority areas, in Angus there were 14,700 furlough claims, 17,700 claims in Dundee, 45,000 in Fife and 22,200 in Perth and Kinross.

Meanwhile, the self-employed income support scheme has given grants to 11,900 people in Tayside – 3,300 in Angus, 3,300 in Dundee and 5,300 in Perth and Kinross – as well as 9,700 people in Fife.

The value of claims made in Tayside and Fife for the self-employed scheme alone is £61.9 million.

The figures show an increase of almost 15,000 people on furlough in Tayside and Fife from the first set of statistics which covered up to May 31.

UK-wide, HMRC said a total of 9.4 million people had been placed on furlough, an increase of 678,000 compared with claims made until the end of May. A total of 1.14 million employers had made at least one CJRS claim – an increase of 75,000 over claims made to the end of May.

The total claimed was £26.5 billion at the end of June, representing an additional £9bn in support claimed since the end of May.

Employees of small and micro-sized firms were more likely to have been furloughed than those working for medium-sized and large employers.

A total of 57% of workers at employers with five to nine employees had been furloughed against just 19% at employers with 250 or more employees.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak emphasised the furlough scheme will end in October during his summer statement last week.